


The Sicilian Defense

by GalaxyRise489



Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Erik Has Feelings, Gen, Technically it’s Peter not Pietro, XMA Missing Scene, cherik if you squint, dadneto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-13 17:23:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21001385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyRise489/pseuds/GalaxyRise489
Summary: For a prompt where Erik is held/holds himself accountable for all that happened during X-Men Apocalypse.Set during the time between the battle and the scene where Erik and Jean are finishing rebuilding the mansion. Erik realizes the consequences of his actions over the past 20 years and how many people have been hurt since he made the decision to leave the beach in Cuba. He also gives the younger mutants a history lesson.





	The Sicilian Defense

**Author's Note:**

> The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring chess response to White's first move.

When Hank set the plane down Erik almost didn’t recognize the location. They were at the mansion, but the mansion wasn’t there. All he could see was a massive pile of rubble. 

“Charles. What happened?” 

Charles was without words, his home, the school, it was… gone. 

“You did this Erik. When you took Charles.” Raven’s voice was cold “Alex is dead. He tried to stop you and there was an explosion.”

“I-“ Erik’s eyes were glued to the wreckage “Alex is?” He looked at Charles who was barely conscious from the injuries, both physical and mental, inflicted by Apocalypse. “I’m sorry.” 

As soon as the plane landed, Raven and the group of kids (where did they get a whole group of fighting kids?) helped Charles get off of the plane and into the make-shift camp the other students had been staying in. 

Erik, for his part, wandered through the rubble. There was a sizable amount of metal, enough that he could fashion some sort of shelter, most likely. His fault, Raven said. When he took Charles. And Havok was dead because of it. 

As he continued his walk, something caught his eye, half sticking out from under a rock. His own face staring back at him. Kicking the rock out of the way, he lifted the picture by its metal frame. Him, Charles, Raven, Hank, Alex, Sean, Armando, and Angel. At the CIA facility. Erik didn’t even remember this picture being taken. They all looked so young- it was 20 years ago, he supposed- and so happy. He was even smiling in the picture. Half of their original group, gone. The mansion, gone. Now all that was left was him, Charles, Raven, and Hank. None of them were really the same people they had been in ‘62 though. Too much had changed. Those of them that remained would never get back to where they had been. He was Magneto now, he had been for 20 years, and that made him the enemy. Nothing he did would change that. 

_ I wouldn’t say  _ nothing _ my friend.  _ He shivered slightly at Charles’s voice in his head.  _ And before you say anything I wasn’t listening in, you were just thinking very loudly. I am extremely glad that picture survived the explosion.  _

“I’ll bring it to you.” Erik replied aloud, knowing that Charles would hear him. He clung to the picture as he continued his walk, mentally cataloging the metal he found along the way. 

“What’s that?” Scott snapped, looking at the picture in Erik’s hand as the older man returned to the group. Some of the younger students looked over nervously. The Professor seemed to trust Magneto, but that did not mean the children trusted him. 

“An old picture of some very old friends.” He looked down at the picture in his hand, “Most of them are gone now.” 

Scott caught a glimpse of Alex’s face and fell to his knees sobbing. “My brother’s there.” 

“I’m sorry about Alex, he was a good kid.” Erik said seriously. “And very powerful. He was the only one who wasn’t scared of me during physical training.” He half grinned at the memory. 

Erik noticed that some of the children had inched closer. He wasn’t sure what version of history Charles was teaching them at his school. “This was the original group of X-Men. They all gave themselves names one night, that’s how Charles became Professor X and I became Magneto.” He pointed at Alex, “Your brother was Havok” he looked at the group of children around him, “I think you all know Beast” he pointed at Hank. “and Mystique” Raven. “This was Armando - Darwin. And Angel. And Sean - Banshee.” He took a deep breath to calm himself, when he woke up this morning, he was not expecting to be teaching mutant history to a group of kids. “Darwin was killed before Cuba. Angel left us before too. Mystique came with me to join the Brotherhood. And Banshee was killed after that by those who hate our kind.” 

Erik looked into the faces of the children who were surrounding him, they ranged from expressions of awe to fear. To these children he was a villain, they didn’t know him before Cuba. And he had destroyed their only home. The one place where they didn’t need to worry about being mutants. Peace still wasn’t an option, but maybe there were multiple ways for mutant-kind to move forward. Maybe Charles had something right with the idea of a school. 

“They respect you.” Charles said as Erik walked over to him, “I can feel it from every one of them” 

Erik handed him the picture “They shouldn’t.” 

“My hair” Charles moaned, running a finger across his hair in the photograph. 

Erik thought it strange that it was his hair, not his legs, that he lamented the loss of. 

“I’ve had 20 years to accept the loss of my legs, Erik.” He passed a hand over his now smooth head, “I’m not sure I’ll ever accept the loss of my hair. It was one of the things I had hoped we changed about the future ten years ago.” 

“If it makes you feel better, it doesn’t look bad this way” Erik offered with a soft smile.

“It doesn’t, but thank you.” Charles looked out at the massive pile of rubble. “Will you stay?” 

Erik knelt, “I will for a while, at least until you rebuild. I think I can salvage enough metal to make a temporary shelter, that’s what I was looking for when I found the picture. I don’t think I can stay forever.”

“You said you were there for your family” Erik addressed the silver haired young man, “Were they killed in one of the attacks?” 

“Nah. My mom’s definitely alive. She’s human. I met my dad 10 years ago, didn’t realize it was him through. Then he just disappeared, so I never got to tell him after I found out.” 

Erik sucked in a breath. That was too much of a coincidence, this was the kid who helped Charles break him out of the Pentagon 10 years prior, and said his mom used to know a guy who could control metal. “You’re?” He couldn’t finish the question. He had a son? A powerful, mutant, son. 

“Surprise?” He shifted slightly, his cast scraping on the ground. 

Erik walked around the couch to stand in front of Peter, “Surprise, indeed. I am not a good father. I cannot promise you anything.” He felt treacherous tears threatening to fall as he thought about Nina. “I just lost my daughter.” 

“Sorry to hear that.” Peter was at a loss for words. He finally told Magneto that he was his son, but never in the years since he found out did he consider what would happen afterward. 

“We’ll keep in touch?” 

Peter nodded silently as he watched Erik leave the room. 

“Did you know?” Erik stormed into the room Charles was using as his study in the makeshift housing units. 

Charles tilted his head, genuinely confused “did I know what, Erik?” 

“Don’t play stupid, Charles, it’s not becoming. Did you know Peter was my son?” Erik’s face was stony. 

“I did” Charles drew the words out, making eye contact. “It was not my place to share it though.” 

Erik turned and left the study. 

_ I’m sorry Erik, but I could not betray the young man’s trust.  _

Erik didn’t reply. And focused all his time and energy to rebuilding the mansion for the next week. Between him and Jean, they were making moderate progress. She was able to manipulate all materials, but focused on the non-metallic ones. Two of them working together was far quicker than either of them trying to go at it alone. 

_ Fancy a game?  _ Erik heard in his mind as he prepared for bed. 

Erik sighed and walked into Charles’s room. “Just one game”

Charles set the pieces out, and made the first move. “The house is coming along well” he observed. 

“It is, Jean has an exceptional power.” Erik made his move. 

“Don’t even think about recruiting her.” Another move. 

“I wasn’t.” Erik chose not to capture one of Charles’s pawns, an unusually conservative strategy for him. 

“I couldn’t bear you taking anyone else from me. I shouldn’t keep forgiving you.” Charles captured a knight. 

“If you didn’t, no one would. I’ve never forgiven myself.” Erik’s next move was also defensive in nature. 

“That, my friend, is why I do.” 

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
